In a recent e-mail to supporters, Washington state senator Val Stevens
made her final plea to constituents to vote no on Referendum 71, stating that gays and lesbians would "take
control of our culture and push their depraved lifestyle on our
children and families."

Stevens
said it was a
miracle that Referendum 71 -- the ballot measure asking voters to
approve or reject the state's expanded domestic-partnerships law --
even made it onto the ballot because of the
"harassment and even death threats by the homosexual radicals pushing
this into our faces." She warned that the bill passed in the
legislature and signed into law by Gov. Christine Gregoire would
strip away the protections of the Defense of Marriage Act.

"Do
you realize what is going on here?" she wrote. "Consider the following:
In 1970 (on the heels of a "free love" '60s radical culture), sodomy
laws were repealed in Washington State, with government turning a blind
eye to a behavior commonly considered perversion -- and still the case
with a majority of Americans."

When asked for comment, Pat Albright, a spokesperson for the Washington Senate Republicans Caucus, said that Stevens "had nothing to add" to her letter. "Basically, that's how she feels."

Stevens also warned supporters that "the homosexuals have amassed over $1 million to sell this reinvention of marriage to an unwitting population," which Steven compared to "the paltry $60,000 we have raised."

Stevens pleaded for money toward efforts like buying ads to counter those paid for by Washington Families Standing Together, the organization heading up the campaign to keep the domestic-partnership bill intact.

She described WAFST's ads as "showing homosexual couples with children trying to appear as normal American families. (The sociological effects of fatherless homes are clear from every study, and from experience as we see the devastation in Scandinavian countries where this is rampant. It also continues the objective of the feminization of the male in our society)."